NHJournal has invited all of the candidates in the First Congressional District Democratic primary to make their “final pitch” for your votes. We’ve also asked all of them to answer the same three questions to shed a little light on their character and, perhaps, have a little fun. You’ll find them below.

Please check back regularly at NHJournal.com, or follow us on Twitter– @NewHampJournal– for more “final pitches” from the candidates as Primary Day approaches.

Terence O’Rourke, Democratic candidate for Congress:

I was born into a family of dedicated public servants: a family of soldiers, firefighters, teachers, and dedicated UNH employees.  Public service is my family’s calling and I followed in that tradition.

I was also born into a family of dedicated Democrats. I grew up hearing stories in which the heroes were FDR, Harry Truman, James Michael Curley, JFK, RFK, and LBJ.  These were liberal Democrats who understood that the role of the party was to act as a counterbalance on behalf of the people against the overwhelming power of Corporations, Wall Street, and Special Interests. Unfortunately, now our party is run by Rockefeller Republicans and Corporate Democrats.

Hope is not lost, though. We can avoid a disaster in November by actually BEING Democrats and refusing to nominate compromised candidates. This means electing candidates that:

  • Believe in truly universal, not for profit health care as a guaranteed right of citizenship. This means moving to Medicare for All immediately and eventually to a National Health System, where people don’t go bankrupt or lose their homes because they got sick.
  • Believe in protecting your pocketbooks and your jobs from the insatiable greed of Wall Street. This means standing firm against efforts to gut Dodd-Frank, it means restoring Glass-Steagall, and it means openly and forcefully chastising those in our caucus who sell us out to international greed, like Senators Shaheen and Hassan, and Congresswoman Kuster.
  • Believe that we can rebuild our infrastructure and our manufacturing base to recreate and reclaim the lost Middle Class; if a Democratic candidate tells you “those jobs are gone and they aren’t coming back,” he’s a Rockefeller Republican and don’t waste your vote on him.
  • Believe in ending endless, undeclared wars abroad and being true peacemakers.  This means ending the Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Niger, and Somalia IMMEDIATLEY and never sending our soldiers overseas without a Declaration of War.

These policies represent a coherent vision for our nation. A vision where the many without are not merely tools for the few with plenty. This is the defining struggle of humanity. All our supposed “rights” are merely the illusion of rights without economic security.  As long as international greed controls every aspect of our lives, we will never be free.

As a combat veteran who has fought America’s enemies abroad, as a prosecutor who has made us safer here at home, as a father of three, as a gun owner, and a hunter, I am not susceptible to the usual Republican attacks that Democrats are weak, un-American, anti-family, soft on crime, anti-gun, and a bunch of snowflakes. Without the benefit of those well-worn attacks, they will have to fight me on the issues and they will lose. They will lose because the voters agree with us on the issues and they are just waiting to be lead back to their ancestral home in Our Party by someone who speaks their language.  I am that candidate and I ask for your vote on September 11!

Questions: 

1:  Where did you go on your first date?

My wife and I happen to both be huge horror movie fans, so we went to see the movie Sorority Row.

2: If someone hit the “play” button on your iTunes Player/CD player/phonograph, etc—what song would play right now?

“The First Time” by U2 from their album Zooropa

3: You’re leaving on a mission to Mars, never to return. You can have one last meal on Earth—and it’s in New Hampshire. What is it?

At Newick’s, I start with the Original Clam Chowder and my main course is Double 1 1/4 boiled lobsters with french fries.  I then drive to Johnson’s in New Durham for ice cream: Cookie dough in a sugar cone. Finally, I have a night cap at Lone Wolfe Brewery in Wolfeboro sipping on Jalapeno IPA and Farmhouse Ale.